Sunday, January 31, 2010

1. Last beverage → Coffee, decaf2. Last phone call → my husband3. Last text message→ "Stu going away?" Colin Z.4. Last song you listened to → "Naveed" by OLP5. Last time you cried→ Two nights ago. Stress. I blame the children.

HAVE YOU EVER:

6. Dated someone twice → Nine times. Then he finally asked me to get married.7. Been cheated on? → You haven't lived till you've been cheated on....yes.8. Kissed someone & regretted it → Oh yes...three times actually.9. Lost someone special?→ Many.10. Been depressed?→ Postpartum can be a bitch.11. Been wasted? → Yes. The minute I announce my lips are 'numb' it's all downhill from there.

LIST THREE FAVORITE COLORS:

12. Black.13. Platinum.14. Medium violet red.

THIS YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Have you made new friends this year → Yes. All Yummy Mummy Club related.16. Fallen out of love → No. I am a sucker for punishment.17. Laughed until you cried → Many, many times. I'm also prone to the 'pig snort' when I am laughing uncontrollably. I'm a classy chick I know.18. Met someone who changed you → Yes.19. Found out who your true friends were → I'm good with being able to count them on one hand.20. Found out someone was talking about you → You haven't lived until you've been the target of gossip.21. Kissed anyone on your top friends list? → Yes.

TRUTH:

23. How many kids do have → Two.24. Do you have any pets → None.25. Do you want to change your name → No. But when I started in radio, the 'suits' did. Apparently my name and I quote was, "Too ethnic sounding."26. What did you do for your last birthday → BBQ.27. What time did you wake up today → 7:36am28. What were you doing at midnight last night → Sleep, blissful sleep.29. Name something you CANNOT wait for → Nadia's baby to finally decide to leave the confines of her uterus.30. Last time you saw your father → Friday night.31. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life? → I'm good. I count my blessings.32. What are you listening to right now → Curious George...one of the DVDs. Curious George = quiet children.33. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom → Yes....The Shock.34. What’s getting on your nerves right now? → Isabella dragging the wooden chair across the floor.36. What’s your real name → Consuelo Rosita Bernardi.37. Relationship Status → Married....I'll let you know if there is such thing as the 7 year itch.38. Zodiac sign: → Gemini.40. Elementary School → St. Rita's41. Middle School → Frank Ryan.42. High school → St. Pius.43. Hair color → Brown with highlights.44. Long or short → Long.45. Height → 5"1.46. Do you have a crush on someone? → Musical crush...Matthew Barber & James Morrison.47. What do you like about yourself? → My handwriting.48. Piercings → Two.49. Tattoos → One.50. Righty or lefty? → Right.

FIRSTS :

51. First surgery → My downsizing boob job.52. First piercing → I think I was 1. Grandmother did it...ice cube, safety pin in the kitchen.53. First tattoo → I think I was 22....trip to Toronto...a dare (2bit's fault).54. First best friend → Bambi....my stuffed deer....he holds all my secrets.55. First sport you joined → Soccer.56. First pet → We had a goldfish once...my mom killed it with bleach when she cleaned out the fishbowl.57. First vacation → Italy.58. First concert → Paula Abdul.59. First crush → Andy Segrue.60. First alcohol drink → Wine (I'm Italian).

RIGHT NOW:

61. Eating → Nothing.62. Drinking → S. Pellegrino.63. I’m about to → Go make sure that the PVR is set for the Grammy Awards.64. Listening to → Children running/screaming around the kitchen and dining room.65. Waiting for → My husband to get home.

YOUR FUTURE :

66. Want kids? → I have two...that ship has sailed. Mentally can only handle the two.67. Want to get married? → The ring on my finger says I already am.68. Careers in mind? → Something media....the radio days have come and gone. A gig with iTunes would be nice considering all the cash I spend each week on downloads.

96. Is there one person you want to be with right now? → Yes.97. Had more than one boyfriend/girlfriend at one time? → It's all so casual in your 20s isn't it?98. Do you believe it’s possible to remain faithful forever? → Has it ever happened in the history of relationships? I say it's 50-50...depends on the two people. Plus there's the whole 'Top 5 laminated list' to consider.99. What’s the one thing you cannot live without? → Coffee in the morning.100. Posting this as 100 Truths? → Yes....I swear.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

A forward send to me by my cousin Pina.It so resonated with me...Totally worth reading.

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business.He was telling whom-ever he was talking with something about 'a thousand marbles.' I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say....'Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's 'dance recital' he continued. 'Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities.' And that's when he began to explain his theory of a 'thousand marbles.'

'You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know... some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.'Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime.

Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part. It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail', he went on, 'and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays.' 'I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles.

I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.' 'Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There's nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.'

'Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.'

'It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man, KNZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!'

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. 'C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast.' 'What brought this on?' she asked with a smile. 'Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Ahhh young Hollywood amuses me so....And so is the case of one half of the Speidi couple.

In a recent interview with Access Hollywood, Heidi Montag blurted out this gem when going on about her 'scientific appreciation' (let's just go with obsession) of plastic surgery...

"I'm sure if Cleopatra was alive now she would opt to have triple Ds."

Ahhh yes Heidi you are so extremely blessed to be able to partake in the beauty and mystery that is completely restructuring your face into something that is a shadow of your former self. Not so sure this goes along with your self professed Bible reading Christian devote ways.Yes I must of missed that scripture reading in religion class back in Grade school.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Our I Love Local Commercials web series is made possible by Microbilt, who is celebrating small businesses across the nation. http://microbilt.com

If you can't wrap your mind around why True Blue Tattoo would agree to do this commercial, stop (before you write another comment) and go look up the following three words in the dictionary: irony, sarcasm, and reverse psychology.

My husband brought my three and a half year old son for a 'clean-up' haircut this morning at 10:30AM.

My husband has always said he thought our son would look cute in a really short 'I've signed up for the military' hairstyle...so naturally he went and asked for a #2 buzz cut.

My son took one look in the mirror after the 'Magicuts' lady did the first pass and the floodgate of tears opened up.

That turned into a full meltdown once the haircut was over. He was totally inconsolable.My little man bawled his eyes out. He wanted my husband and the 'cutting lady' to pick up his hair and stick it back on his head.

To put it mildly, he HATES his hair.

He has it in his little head that he isn't handsome anymore. More specifically that I don't think he's handsome anymore. He didn't even want to come into the house to show me, saying that he wanted to 'stay in the car in the garage forever and ever until my hair grows back.'

He is so sad. As of 4:42PM he still won't look in the mirror because he thinks he's ugly.

I had no idea he would have such a strong attachment to his hair. Or that he even understood the concept of 'feeling or looking ugly'.

He just doesn't understand that in time his hair will grow back. He keeps pointing to a picture of himself prior to the cut saying 'I want my hair like that Mommy. Can you fix my hair? Please?'

Le sigh.

Well at least I now know that my husband, who for the record feels like total and utter crap, will never ask for a buzz cut for our son again.

And to my little prince, hair or no hair, Mommy thinks you are the most handsome boy in the whole world.

So somehow I talked myself into a one month self imposed Facebook hiatus.A friend of mine, who is anti-social media as one can get [don't get me started], claimed that I have a Facebook problem...claiming that it's more like an addiction of sorts.

Cue the repeated rolling my eyes.

Anyways I took that blanket statement as a direct challenge so I stated that I did not in fact have a Facebook problem and that I could very easily stay away for one whole month.

That was January 1st.

Now the emails from well intentioned and concerned friends are coming, wondering as to my sudden and abrupt absence from the world of Facebook...no word of a lie.

Here are just a few examples:

Everything OK? I haven't seen any YMC updates lately...hope you had a great holiday break..

How are you? You've been suspiciously absent from FB. Everything ok?

Just thought I'd check in...haven't seen any of your witty updates on Facebook...everything ok?

You've been quietly lately...that's not like you.

Ummm yeah about that...maybe [that's a maybe] I do spent a lot of time on Facebook BUT it's not an addiction. Really.

Oh February 1st hurry up already...I am feeling the start of Facebook withdrawal.

Oddly enough when my girlfriends and I got up on stage at the local karaoke bar to sing Madonna's 'Like a Virgin' at my bachelorette party our harmonies didn't exactly fuse together like this...I'd say we were pretty much off key the whole time [I blame the alcohol and total lack of singing talent]

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

I admit that I got sucked into the Facebook 'Farmville' vortex, to the point where perhaps it has become slightly an addiction of sorts...yes it seems that this city girl is apparently a virtual farming girl at heart.

But let's make it clear that this love of farming exists only in the virtual world...I mean my fab shoe collection would never cut it in the corn fields.

But I digress.

My husband, who enjoys mocking me on a daily basis for my 'harvest, plow, seed' rituals, sent me this link to an article on Good.is

It was written by Peter Smith. A food columnist who collects rumblings from the collective gut, around the dinner table, and across the food world.

He wrote an article on the game Farmville and he believes it is a detriment to the farming industry...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks Mr. Smith made quite the leap with the views in his article...

Scott Todd who left this comment put it best:

"I can only hope and pray that our country hasn't sunken to such a level of idiocy that a Facebook game can actually affect the entire agricultural industry. It's disheartening enough to know that a "journalist" actually wasted the time to write an article about this worthless garbage. Maybe next week we'll hear about how the excess of taxis in NYC has spawned a breakout of jaundice in the Big Apple. After all, yellow paint should result in yellow people..."

Soundgarden announces that they are back and that "school is back in session."

This is one reunion I am thrilled to hear about.

According to Billboard Soundgarden leader singer Chris Cornell, guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist Ben Shepherd, and drummer Matt Cameron are currently kicking around the idea of getting Soundgarden back together for a series of music festival shows in 2010. If these Soundgarden reunion hook-ups do come to fruition, it'll be the first time Chris Cornell will tour with the original Soundgarden members after his musical explorations with AudioSlave and his solo days.

When I read this in the paper I could not help but laugh...yes we Italians have a very complex and complicated relationship with our families it would seem...

Happy New Year.

updated 9:27 a.m. ET,Fri., Jan. 1, 2010

ROME - A Sicilian man stole sweets and a packet of chewing gum so he could get arrested and spend New Year's Eve in a jail cell rather than be with his wife and relatives, Italian media reported on Friday.

The 35-year old Sicilian first showed up at a police station on Thursday asking to be arrested because he preferred spending the night in prison rather than with his family, but was rebuffed because he had not committed a crime, the Agi news agency said.

The man immediately went to a tobacco shop next door, where he threatened the owner with a box cutter as he grabbed a few sweets and a packet of gum. He then waited until police arrived to arrest him for robbery, the news agency said.

The last purchase we made in our house was the highly recommended 'goose down pillows'.

Yeah about that.

Those over fluffy pillows may work for me when I'm in hotel room getaway mode but they made a very poor transition to the 'everyday good night's sleep land'.I loathe those pillows with everything in me and the price tag that came with them.

So in attempt to kick off 2010 with some decent, comfortable, blissful sleep, I went to the land of all things Swedish and bought some new pillows. [Cue the angelic singing].